General Articles

Stones Crying Out :: By Terry James

Published on: by RR7

 

We’ve talked several times about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, offering Himself as Israel’s Messiah. The people were exultant.

So much had been seen and heard regarding Jesus’ miracles and transforming message as He taught through his travels with His immediate disciples. He was hailed by the masses as He sat atop that donkey, moving through the slopes and into the city.

At the same time, those of the Jewish ecclesiastical class—the so-called Judaizers—decried the Lord’s movement into the city, seeing it as blasphemy. They believed He was anything but sent from God. They were, as a matter of fact, determined to murder Him. They did, in fact, do so through the Roman government a short time later.

The Jewish religious leaders were enraged at the way the people who believed (Jesus’ disciples) were responding to Jesus as He came toward Jerusalem.

“And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:37-40).

Jesus was revealing a truth that few who read this passage really grasp: the truth about His relationship not just with people, but with the very creation—planet Earth and all the cosmos. That is, all that God created.

Remember the time on the Sea of Galilee when the little boat was about to be destroyed in the great storm that came up? Jesus was sleeping soundly when the disciples came to Him and, with great fear of being swamped by the storm, wanted Him to know what was going on.

The Lord simply said calmly, “Peace, be still,” and the sea’s surface became instantly as slick as glass. Nature itself obeyed Jesus’ command, and His disciples, who had been with Him and seen many miraculous things He did, were dumbfounded.

They said, “What manner of man is this that even the sea obeys him?”

Later, Jesus said that if He didn’t receive praise while He rode into Jerusalem, showing He was that God/man–Israel’s Messiah King—all of nature would erupt in praise of Him. Nature knows to not turn its back on the God who created it. Man, on the other hand, continues to do so without thinking twice. And mankind turning its back on God is what will ultimately bring the great geophysical and astrophysical upheavals of the Tribulation as given in the book of Revelation. It is the Revelation, the unveiling of Christ for all of the rebels of earth at that time to witness. They will endure horrendous judgment and wrath, but they will know, in the end, that Jesus is Lord–the Creator of everything that is.

“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15–17).

But the rocks won’t obey them as they do the God who created them. Man will face God’s ultimate punishment for willfully, knowingly turning their back to Jesus Christ and the great price He paid to redeem sin-condemned mankind if they would but accept God’s grace offer.

We present numerous news stories of the increasing weather and geological upheavals at this late hour so near the end of the age. The climate change the New World Order builders claim is man-made, thus, they proclaim can only be dealt with by man, is beginning to ratchet up. But it is the stones–nature— beginning to cry out because wicked mankind is determined to remove God from heavenly governance. These phenomena are scheduled to get worse–much, much worse.

The Jewish religious hierarchy continues to misunderstand God’s truth regarding all this. They almost get it but still don’t understand who Israel’s Messiah is. Excerpts of a recent report make this clear.

Two earthquakes shook northern Israel within a few hours, bringing the total of earthquakes in Israel this month up to four. Scientists are issuing dire warnings of imminent doom, but rabbis point to the prophecies as proof that people who have faith have nothing to fear and even that the Messiah’s arrival is “speeding up.”…

Rabbi Lazer Brody, an American-born Hasidic rabbi from Ashdod, explained that earthquakes and other signs of the end-of-days would begin appearing at an even faster pace.

“People don’t need to wonder about this,” Rabbi Brody said. “The sages wrote that when the fate of Israel would be in the hands of the Erev Rav (mixed multitude), God will speed up the geula (redemption). And that is precisely the government Israel has right now. They are telling Jews that we can’t live in the Negev, Judea and Samaria, and now they are even kicking Jews out of their houses in the Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood in Jerusalem.”

“This is Hashem having mercy on us by speeding up Moshiach (Messiah) like he did at the end in Egypt.” (“Israel hit with two earthquakes in ten hours, 4 in one month; ‘Accelerating Messiah’s arrival,'” by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz | Feb 16, 2022 | Biblical News)

Like we’ve looked at many times in these articles, we’ve come again to times described by Paul in Romans chapter 1. People in America and around the world have largely turned their backs on God. The results are a collective reprobate mindset. We can expect, with this rebellion, nothing less than what the Lord Himself said about this condition.

“I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:37–40).

But God’s judgment and wrath are not reserved for believers who praise Him (Revelation 3:10). So take heart. He will rescue believers from the Tribulation storm that’s coming. He is saying even now to us as we look upon this tumultuous sea of rebellious humanity and all the wickedness it engenders, “Peace. Be still.”

Enter (My) Mission: by Lisa Heaton

Published on: by RR7

If you missed the first entry, How Do I Share What I Know?, here on Rapture Ready, I encourage you to go back and read the first installment. It will be a helpful resource to introduce you to the free fiction book, Daybreak, Last Days of Light, a unique and non-threatening means for you to share what you know with your friends, both men and women alike. Download here for free.

While Daybreak is a great entry point of the last-days happenings and soon-coming rapture for those who are willing to read it, how do we share with others in our lives who won’t read? We all feel it at times, paralyzed by the enormity of what we’re seeing. We want to do something to reach our deceived family and friends, but what? Make no mistake about it; we all have a role to play even when the enemy tries to convince us otherwise.

Are you ready to enter your own last-days mission?

“An intermission is a time between two parts, an interruption in the flow of something. In this case our ‘enter mission’ is the time between life as we once knew it and that twinkling-of-an-eye moment when the Groom will come to rescue His bride. Rest assured, He will come for you. Love comes for the beloved.

Enter mission means there is a choice set before you: to make an impact or to remain in the sameness of the life you’ve known – to blaze or to fizzle. You either shine the Light or enable the darkness. You speak out in faith or sleep on in silence.” – Daybreak, Enter Mission

Nothing about entering into your Daybreak mission, walking as a child of Light and exposing darkness, may seem easy, and in your own power it isn’t. As a matter of fact, whatever God has for you in the months or even years to come if He tarries, will be flat out impossible if you’re trying to do it in and by your own strength and power. I don’t know what your specific role is in our collective mission of warning the lost and waking the found, but I know it’s bigger than you. Mine is bigger than me. I just expressed the next phase of a project I’m working on in this way: God has given a Goliath-sized task to some David-sized people. We’re all David-sized compared to what’s going on in this world. Isn’t it a relief to know that God is on your David-sized side?

Know what it takes to do big things like slaying a giant? You just have to have a David-sized heart for God, a heart that says yes even before you know what He’s asking of you. Will you do that, say yes? Another thing it takes is to be okay with your size and station. David was just a shepherd boy who used the tricks of his trade to get the job done while others were too cowardly to face such a menacing enemy. He tried on and found Saul’s armor and sword didn’t fit him, so he reverted to a rock and a sling like he had used to protect his sheep. It worked, and a giant fell. But David’s story didn’t end there; he eventually grew into a mighty warrior, a fierce soldier who led the charge in battle.

Now it’s our time, man or woman, young or old, to become equipped soldiers willing to take on the Goliaths in our world. Like it or not, know it or not, we each already stand on the battlefield of this last-days planet. I’m not saying we go out and take on the global elites who will stop at nothing to dominate this world. I am saying that we place ourselves in the position to allow the Restrainer to restrain through us. We can’t snivel and cower in the face of evil. No, we shine brighter and speak louder. We step into our own for-such-a-time-as-this moment.

Read the story of the Jews in the book of Esther. Even after Esther’s intervention, for the Jews, that didn’t stop the threat of assault against their homes and families. What it did do was give rise to a people who would stand firm and not accept their extermination without retaliation.

We, as believers, need that same rising-up spirit now more than ever. Banded together, arms linked in solidarity, we are a formidable army that will be examples to and remembered by those left behind after our departure. Yes, we know through Scripture that here at the end, a great apostasy in the church will come. It’s here already. Nowhere does it say, though, that those faithful few who remain can’t go out in a blaze of glory. In Luke 18:8, within the bounds of a parable, Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” What if we can answer yes to that? We see the church waning. We see deceived believers. Pastors in most churches either don’t see the deception or are afraid to speak against it. I honestly don’t know which is worse.

No matter what the unfaithful do, we don’t have to stand down. We don’t have to be silent. Let’s choose to embrace our role, rise up, and speak forth.

If you have read Daybreak, then you understand what Safe Haven is, Paige and Wyatt’s new home, a fortified base of operations for a team of people willing to use their abilities to restrain evil. Recently I’ve been viewing my home and even my spiritual life as me being at my Safe Haven. I realize that we would all do well to find our own Safe Haven, that place where the Lord provides for, protects, and prepares us for the tumultuous days to come. Those who are masterminds of this great global agenda have come too far to back down now. We are all committed at this point, them to taking control of this deceived world and us in full revolt against the deceiver. With that in mind, preparations must be made for our hearts, our homes, and for the left behind who may find our homes a sanctuary in the midst of their horrific, left-behind lives.

Training Ground – Your Spiritual Safe Haven

Are you the rising-up type? If not before, are you willing now? Will you step onto your training ground and allow God to stir your David-sized heart into action, whatever that may be? If you’ve seen enough and are now convinced that this world is winding down, then this is your next logical move, to train and prepare for battle. We, as soldiers in this last-days conflict, need specialized training to be effective on the battlefield. We must accept our unique roles, take up our staffs and swords, and fix our eyes on our Commander and King.

Like any soldier would, you must go through basic training and review the fundamentals. Different, though, than a newly enlisted soldier, you will receive on-the-job training rather than spend weeks in boot camp. As you learn, use what you know. Make the most of your time, for the days are evil (Eph 5:16).

I can think of no better imagery than that of a soldier, the brave soul who runs into the fight rather than away. That must be us now, willing to step into our combat boots and rattle the gates of hell with our collective march. The concept of rattling the gates came to me several years ago, at first through song lyrics. I never did anything with the song, but with our current soldier imagery, I see its application now.

“…I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18).

I believe Jesus meant exactly what He said. Yet, to look at the church today, we sure don’t seem to be the ones prevailing. The gates of hell seem to rattle us way more than our activities rattle the gates. Just so you know, I don’t mean some spiritual charge against hell. I simply mean we tend to spend more time running away from the enemy, fearing he has some mystical power over our lives, than we do charging ahead with the battle cry of the Lord. When we as believers stand upon Jesus, the Word made flesh, the enemy has no power over us. It’s time we started living that truth. It’s time to be soldiers rather than babes in the faith.

We genuinely don’t have time for our old way of life, that life we keep referring to as “normal.” Newsflash: We will never see what we consider normal again. And praise God for that since our normal in this nation was already calling evil good and good evil, substituting darkness for light and light for darkness (Is. 5:20).

Pre-2020 life, for the most part, was good. We gathered in person and without fear. Preachers preached about the loving Jesus, the saving Jesus, and the healing Jesus. We sang, we listened, and we went home until the next Sunday. With what we now know, that way of doing church should be a thing of the past, yet many – actually most – are once again falling into those same old patterns, pretending there’s a new normal that’s warm and comfy.

The first church comes to mind, how warm and comfy life was for them. Oh wait, that’s not right. The first church, those early believers, were persecuted and thrown out of their houses of worship for speaking the truth of Jesus as Messiah. New believers were disowned by their families and lost their homes and livelihoods for standing firm for Truth. Sound familiar in the days of mandates? We, the last church, are faced with the same tough decisions and consequences as the first church. Will we stand and speak truth about the soon-coming Jesus, or will we sleep on in the warm and comfy routines that were once our pre-2020 lives?

In order to be who we must be and do what we must do, it’s time to get serious in our walks with the Lord if we’re not already. It’s time to learn and grow and stretch our understanding. There’s much to cover, and as much as I’d like to get it all accomplished in one or two sittings, I think we need to strengthen our resolve over time. I know that’s what it has taken for me. I continually seek an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus. Without that, I won’t stand. Without that, I would melt into a puddle of fears and inactivity. Commit to step onto and remain on your training ground until that moment when you’re snatched out of the way of the fast-approaching train.

What you’ve just read brings you up to speed from the Enter Mission and Training Ground pages on the Daybreak.Team website. From here, join me for the kick-off to the Prepare for Your Role series. A partial list of future topics is provided below. As each installment is available, a link will be added to the Training Ground page to take you to the material. If you would like to be notified when each topic is added, you can sign up to receive notifications. Sign up here.

Prepare for Your Role Series:

Accept Your Role: This Just Got Real – Video and written material
Embrace Your Design: It’s Okay to be You
Elevate Your Voice: Find Your Unique-to-You Voice

Visit the Daybreak.Team website for more information.
Download here for free.